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WATCHUNG - The first new cinema in Somerset County in more than a decade has been proposed on the site of Sears Auto Center at the intersection of Route 22 and Terrill Road.

Cinemark, headquartered in Plano, Texas, wants to build the 882-seat complex as part of a plan by Seritage Growth Properties to demolish the auto center and the Sears store, across Terrill Road, and replace them with new stores and restaurants.

In its original plan, Seritage wanted to convert the Sears Auto Center into five retail spaces and build an 8,000-square-foot addition to house five more retail spaces.

But that plan was dropped and Seritage, a national real estate firm, came back to Watchung in March with the cinema proposal. Seritage also owns the Freehold Raceway Mall and Willowbrook Mall in Wayne.

The 37,630-square-foot cinema will have 305 parking spaces, 11 more than required by borough ordinance. A traffic study for the developer says the cinema will generate less traffic than the original proposed retail center.

Seritage still proposes to demolish the 118,000-square-foot Sears store and replace it with a shopping center with four "pads" for retail or restaurant use and two larger buildings with stores. The total space will be 95,368 square feet with 462 parking spaces.

The Watchung Planning Board will hold hearings on both projects at 7 p.m. April 18 at borough hall, 15 Mountain Blvd.

The proposed cinema, the only movie theater in the Route 22 corridor from Bridgewater to Mountainside, will include Cinemark's Luxury Loungers, which the company describes as plush, electric-powered with foot rests and cupholders.

Cinemark, which owns only two other cinemas in New Jersey — in Hazlet and Camden County — is the third-largest cinema chain in the United States with 526 in 41 states. Cinemark also has a growing presence in Latin America with 187 theaters.

The company, after reporting record earnings in 2016, plans to open eight new theaters and 69 screens this year.

No timetable has been set for the project.

At one time, the Route 22 Sears was a primary retail destination in the highway corridor, along with Great Eastern, Korvette's and Two Guys.

But as the retail industry changed in the past two decades, Sears' fortunes began to wane. The opening of the Watchung Square Mall, less than a mile to the west on Route 22, with a Wal-Mart, Home Depot and Target, put further pressure on Sears.

Another tipping point for Sears was the 2013 opening of Costco in the former Route 22 building that once housed Kmart and Great Eastern a few miles away in North Plainfield.

Sears' fortunes are not doing well across the country. In February, the company announced it was closing 42 Sears and 108 Kmart stores this year as part of a plan to save $1 billion.